Space between atoms?

[DHS1]

Hey. I have a question that me and a friend just thought of.

Ok. So atoms make up everything in the universe, right? Well. I know atoms consist of a nucleus and electron(s). The nucleus is less than 1% of the whole atoms volume. And an electron is 1/1800 the size of a nucleus... so you can say they really have no percentage of volume in the atom. So approx. 99% of an atom is nothingness.

Well, since everything is made up of atoms, and atoms are only 1% of something, then everything is only 1% of something? And the other 99% of everything is nothing?

So right now, I am 99% nothing, right?

PS: I asked this question to two of my chemistry teachers. One said we still have things to learn. The other said "some things are best left unthought of".

[Sylphid]

Try wikipedia.

Also I don't like your second teacher's way of thinking. That's a really ****ty way of going about things...

[Windscarredfaith]

That's actually pretty weird if you think about it... I wouldn't have an answer for you though.

[RandomPscho]

Looking for an answer I found a cool quote:

A beach ball is mostly empty space, yet you cannot run through a room full of them.

Sorry I don't know the answer.

[DARKSAMUS]

Your wrong an atom is everything even the air... Not just 1% of things

[iwillowndavid]

Yeah but theres no air in between the nucleus and its electrons

[DARKSAMUS]

Then what are you talkng about? Everything is made up of atoms. There is no space in between atoms either.

[strongbad50]

There is space between atoms. How else would they collide and therefore create heat?

[Kilroy_x]

Coulomb (sp) barrier. Electromagnetic resistence. High school science teachers are fools, even I know this and only as a result of one book.

There was a long period in history when people rejected the idea of the atom as being impossible because of this. Rene descartes famously and wrongly said that "nature abhors a vacuum".

Basically, the force of gravity is so weak that objects don't reach singularity and the natural force of repulsion (the thing which makes it so you can stand on the ground instead of falling through it) keeps atoms apart from each other to a very small extent. The individual components of atoms manage to stay apart because of this reason as well as the properties of the atom: The nucleus is actually so small that despite it being charged opposite to other particles within the atom, these particles actually can't collapse inwards into the atom so they remain in orbit.

Well, the problem with quantum physics is that you can describe things at the atomic level using a wave formula or a particle forumula, and I'm sort of (poorly) combining the two to try and give an explanation (badly). This is likely due to my extreme poverty of knowledge in the area.

But if you describe it as a wave the idea is that the wave that encompasses the nucleus can't collapse into the nucleus because it wouldn't "fit".


If you want to get an explanation that doesn't suck you should ask a physicist, or maybe even just a chemist or electrical engineer who isn't some idiot high school teacher.

[Metheawsome]

I think recently that the scientific communtity was talking about what Protons and Electrons were made of and people think there's a smaller thing making up the atom.

What are those things made out of then?

I know it's kind of off topic but I'm curious.

[MeaCulpa]

The number of sub-subatomic particles my surprise you, then.

[RandomPscho]

Originally Posted by Metheawsome

I think recently that the scientific communtity was talking about what Protons and Electrons were made of and people think there's a smaller thing making up the atom.

What are those things made out of then?

I know it's kind of off topic but I'm curious.

Nutrinos
Quarks
And I can't remember any more off the top of my head. :\ Tachyons are believed by some.

String theory deals with the question "what is the smallest 'thing,'" amoung other problems.

[iwillowndavid]

electrons, neutrinos, and quarks are as far as theyve got

[DHS1]

I just got an email from my chemistry teacher. He said:

Atoms are made of protons and neutrons and electrons. The nucleus
makes up less than one-trillionth of the volume of an atom. So, atoms
are mostly empty space. The size of the atom is dictated by the
electrons, which are believed to be point-like particles that have no
size (volume) only mass. So the electrons are nothing in terms of size.
Protons and neutrons have some size, albeit small. However, the
protons and neutrons in the nucleus are made of quarks, which are also
believed to be points. The quarks have mass and charge like electrons,
but no size. So everything is made of atoms which are made of quarks
and electrons, which have no size. So, in terms of volume, anything is
made of nothing. But, somehow, that nothing makes everything!

O_O;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;

[ffrrocksya]

yeah try wikipedia. it's very helpful

[RandomPscho]

They don 't literally mean 0, just an EXTREMELY small number. An you teaching keeps saying point-like particle but there a MANY problems with this theory, which string theory ties to fix/explain.

[korny]

I never really understood the whole logistics of atoms and all that. I mean, atoms have to be made of something right? And whatever makes up the atoms has to be made of something as well and so on and so on...

[Reach]

Originally Posted by DHS1

Hey. I have a question that me and a friend just thought of.

Ok. So atoms make up everything in the universe, right? Well. I know atoms consist of a nucleus and electron(s). The nucleus is less than 1% of the whole atoms volume. And an electron is 1/1800 the size of a nucleus... so you can say they really have no percentage of volume in the atom. So approx. 99% of an atom is nothingness.

Well, since everything is made up of atoms, and atoms are only 1% of something, then everything is only 1% of something? And the other 99% of everything is nothing?

So right now, I am 99% nothing, right?

PS: I asked this question to two of my chemistry teachers. One said we still have things to learn. The other said "some things are best left unthought of".

Indeed the electron moves (usually) quite far from the nucleus, but all of that space isn't actually the atom, but is just space in which the electron can move through.


However, yes, if you were to break things down to the absolute fundemental levels of reality, your existance is not continuous. You are '99% nothing', if that's how you want to put it. The continuous world you perceive is an illusion.

At the smallest scales of reality, things are moving rather randomly at speeds it is futile for you to bother trying to understand. Everything is spinning and vibrating and fluctuating so quickly that essentially this '99% nothing' ends up disappearing.


Oh and yea, you can break the nucleus down, and even the electron for that matter. There are much smaller things than neutrons and protons.

[ledwix]

I think i've heard that an atomic nucleus accounts for only about one 10,000th of an atom's total volume. if 99.99% of atoms are "nothing," (a.k.a. empty space) and there is a TON of space between atoms which move freely on Earth, think of how little matter there is on our planet. The Earth could be, what, a million times as dense as it is now, if atoms were closer together and were filled to the brim with protons and neutrons. Now, put that on an astronomical scale. The Earth is just a tiny dot of extremely concentrated matter compared to the empty void of space. The average density of the universe is only about 5×10^(-30) grams per cubic centimeter of space. compare this to the average density of hydrogen gas, the lighest known substance on the planet, 9 x 10^(-4) grams per cubic centimeter. Therefore, the seemingly empty air on our planet is almost one septillion times as dense as the universe in total. If you thought we were 99% nothing, think about the shortage of matter there seems to be in the entire universe, and how we are more than 10^24 times as dense as it.

[Raveren]

Just to give an idea of the size of the nucleus is in comparison to the atom, imagine a marble in the center of a professional footbal stadium, that would be the approximate relativity of a nucleus to the atom. Indeed, it seems hard to beleive that nearly nothing makes everything. but don't forget that it TRILLIONS of those little seemingly "nothings" that make up just the very tip of a needle.